Phantom Snap
by AwesomeMan327
Summary: The Avengers weren't the only group affected by Thanos's snap.


**April 27, 2018**

**Shibuya District**

**Evening**

Ren Amamiya was a complicated guy: top of his High School class, former parolee, and ex leader of the Phantom Thieves. That in itself is a complicated tale. Long story short, Ren was sent to Tokyo to carry out his parole when he discovered he was able to change the hearts of others using an alternate world known as the Metaverse. He met plenty of others with the same ability and created The Phantom Thieves. A group of unknown heroes who pursue criminals and force them to confess to their crimes. Not everyone agreed with the way they operated and tried to arrest them. They only succeeded when Ren turned himself in after saving the world from a false god. He was let out not long after and things returned to normal. As normal as being tailed by the police and government agents can allow. 

Ren almost laughed to himself a bit. A short while after his release, the governments that used to come to arrest him had switched gears and wanted to recruit him. He had gotten an invitation to the Avengers, a group that needed no introduction. He, of course, declined the offer. Not wanting to become a government lap dog due to the Sokovia Accords that came about. That, and the fact that they no longer had their Persona. They accepted the graduate's decision but still warned him that further unauthorized use of his abilities would result in his arrest. 

"You seem lost in thought, something on your mind?" 

"Yeah, you've had a stupid look on your face for a while," added a voice from his book bag. 

Ren glared towards the bag at the retort, causing the cat to hide back in with a laugh. That was Morgana. A cat with the ability to talk because of the Metaverse. It was sometimes awkward to talk to him, since only the Phantom Thieves had the ability to understand him. 

Ren's gaze moved to the former voice, who had an amused look on her face. Ann Takamaki, the fourth member of their group and one of the founders of The Phantom Thieves. Her platinum blonde hair was pulled into a normalponytail instead of her regularpigtails. They had also been dating for a while, having gotten together on Golden Week when Ren returned for a visit after going back home. 

"Just thinking of random stuff, like our second year and the Avengers." 

Ann perked up at the last part, "The Avengers? Why are you thinking about them?" 

"I know I said no because of the Accords but sometimes I think I made a mistake, you know? Like maybe I could still be making a difference." 

Morgana poked his head back out of the bag, "How can you do that without your powers?" The tone on that last word came out almost sarcastic. If the cat had fingers, he most likely would be doing air quotes. 

"Do we even know if they're fully gone? Sure, we can't summon our Personas, but we should still be as agile as we were." 

Ann gave him an understanding smile, "That may be, but we've been out of practice for a while. Besides, we don't have any of our gear or outfits, not that I'd want to wear mine out in public." She quickly added the last part, a small blush on her face. 

"I thought you looked great in it, Lady Ann!" 

"Not what I meant!" She said, pushing the cat back in the bag. Said animal letting out a short yell at the action. 

Ann quickly changed her tone and turned to her boyfriend, the smile back on her face, "How about we push the topic to the side for now and just enjoy our date, alright? It'd probably be better to talk about the Avengers and the Accords with the whole group together." The smile turned into a pout when he didn't say anything, looking at his phone. 

"What's so important that you can't answer me?" She asked, grabbing the phone to look at it. 

Ren didn't fight it, "There's been an invasion in Wakanda. There is only satellite footage available, but that's way too many to be a friendly greeting. If only I had agreed, this is something The Phantom Thieves could've helped with!"

"Hey, it's not our problem remember? We used Personas to fight supernatural beings, what would we do against aliens-" Ann's thought was interrupted halfway through as the three shivered. 

"What was that?" Ren asked, taking his phone back and looking around. 

"Felt like some sort of energy discharge, but no one else seems to be reacting to it," Morgana said, looking around with his head poked out. "You think our past endeavors in the Metaverse allowed us to notice?" 

"That may be," Ren said, opening the group chat for the Thieves to ask if they felt it too. 

"Oh my god!" 

The random scream stopped what he was about to do as his head shot back up to look towards the noise. A woman was staring at an empty place on the walkway, hands to her mouth. 

"What the…?" 

Suddenly, more screams and shouts of surprise surrounded the trio. The cause was finally known to them: people were evaporating into dust. 

"Oh my god, what's happening?" Ann cried, gaze moving back and forth as if the clue lied somewhere in the chaos. 

Ren immediately went back to his phone to send a text. 

**Ren: Roll call everyone, now**

"Ren!"

Said boy turned his gaze to the voice, eyes widening in horror. Ann tried to reach out to him as she disappeared without a trace. Ren tried to grab her too, his hand just phasing through hers as she left.

"Lady Ann!" 

Ren ignored Morgana's cry as he dropped to his knees, staring at where Ann was just standing. Shakily he brought his phone back up to type again.

**Ren: I REPEAT! ROLL CALL!**

This time a reply came right away.

**Ryuji: THE HELL'S HAPPENING MAN? MAKOTO DISAPPEARED RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME**

**Ren: Please don't tell me this is everyone**

Both boys stared at their screens, waiting for more replies. After minutes passed though, none came. Ren bit the tip of his thumb, staring at the phone. He couldn't accept that this was happening.

He jolted when his ringtone went off, the screen telling him it was the only one of the group to respond to the roll call. He sullenly hit the call button and put the device on speaker.

"Dude, I just tried calling everyone else and no one was picking up! Do you have any idea what's happening!?" 

Ren could hear the panic in his friend's voice, he just couldn't acknowledge it. His focus had returned on the spot the ponytailed model had been standing.

"Ann's Gone…" 

Ryuji was silent, but his nature didn't allow that to continue much longer. "Her, our friends, and million others dude! Get your head out of your ass and let's figure this out!" 

Morgana had hopped out of the bag during the exchange and looked around. His ears dropped in dread at the state of their surroundings. "The numbskull's right for a change. We need to do something."

Ryuji gave a soft growl at the jab, but ignored it for the important matter at hand, "Is there anything that we can do, leader?"

The sulking young adult finally snapped out of his daze at the title. That's right, HE was the leader of the Phantom Thieves. HE was Joker. Standing up, a determined look soon replaced the sullen one on his face. "We need to meet up at LeBlanc. We might not have any idea of what to do, but I know people who could." 

**May 13, 2018**

**Avengers Facility**

**Afternoon**

Steve, out of costume, crossed arms and looked at the enhanced pager. The device sat in a special charging station to try and keep the signal it was putting out from ending.

"Do we still have no idea who it's trying to contact?" He asked, turning to Bruce Banner for an answer. The man was currently occupied with a program on his laptop, most likely trying to find out an answer to the question. 

Banner sighed in exasperation, taking a pair of glasses off his face as he turned to the other man, "Unfortunately no, I'm not getting a ping on anything on Earth it could be trying to contact."

"What if it's not on Earth?" Another man added, having just entered the room.

"You can't be serious, Rhodes…" Bruce pinched his nose, not in irritation, but exhaustion. "You think Fury was trying to contact someone from outer space?"

"Not the weirdest thing we've encountered," Steve added, stroking his beard in thought. "We fought against Thanos side by side with a talking raccoon and tree."

_Meow_

The chatter between the three of them stopped, eyes looking all over the room to find the source of the noise. 

"Everyone just heard a cat right now, right?" Rhodes asked slowly. 

"Yeah," Steve replied. "Where is it?" 

"I think a better question would be how did it get inside?" Bruce asked, a sort of confusion in his voice. 

The search stopped when a soft thump sounded off a table, causing the trio to turn and look. There it was, a black and white cat sitting like it owned the place. 

"That cat looks a bit too smug to be just a normal animal," Rhodes muttered to himself. 

They all just watched with curiosity as the cat appeared to push something forward. Steve was the one to step forward to take a look. It appeared to be a card, designed with a creative black and red striped background. In the center of it sat a top hat over a flaming mask. 

"Nice work keeping their attention long enough for us to sneak in, Mona."

The sudden voice immediately sent the group's reactions to defensive. Steve put up his fists while Rhodes pulled out a pistol. Bruce stayed back, knowing he wouldn't be much help in a fight.

Only two people had snuck in from behind them. Both were dressed in black except that one of them was wearing a jacket, while the other was in more of a tailcoat. The jacket wearing figure wore yellow gloves and a red scarf, a mask of the top half of a skull sat at the top of his face. The one thing that stood him out against his counterpart was his bright blond hair. The other wore red gloves, his mask a white and black domino style which was bird like in nature. 

"Who the hell are you?" Rhodes demanded, pointing his gun at the dark haired one. Despite both appearing calm with no intention of attacking, he just had the air of a leader around him. 

"I'm sure you already know the answer to that," he calmly answered, only moving to allow the cat to climb up to his shoulders. No one had noticed the feline move from its post, or that it seemed to have whispered something to the leader. His eyes drifted to Captain America once the cat was settled in.

"The Phantom Thieves…" Steve realized.

Banner had a questioning look on his face, "Who?"

"Right...you weren't here during that craze…" Rhodes answered. "They're a Japanese group who specialized in forcing criminals to admit their crimes. They were invited to join The Avengers after their leader turned himself in and was released. All Japan would give us about him us was that he was young and that his codename was Joker."

Said leader nodded in agreement and smirked a little, "Glad to see you aren't the government's dogs anymore." The comment receives a small frown from War Machine but a quick chuckle from the Captain himself. 

"Well, it's better to join late than never," Steve replied. "You ARE here to join the fight, right?"

"We're here to find out what happened and-" Joker began.

"And who the fuck is Thanos?"

Joker could only sigh and pinched his nose at his partner's bluntness. The cat seemed to share the sentiment.

And they were making such a great impression too.


End file.
